Stay
by Carnellia
Summary: The gods must be cruel, he thought bitterly as he looked down at the face of a man, to send him another one to love, to care for, and to send away. Two thousand years later, the memories come to haunt him yet again. RivaEren.
1. Chapter 1

**Wow I should really update all my other fanfics but this idea wouldn't leave my mind. I was talking with another friend about how everytime they mention the word 'titan' in a book I thought of SnK and this came out.**

**What little I know of Calypso and her myth is from the PJO series so excuse me if some things aren't correct.**

* * *

He looks out at the cave and sighs. The past two hundred years or so has been peaceful, but Eren doesn't know when another mortal will wash up on the island that is his prison as a punishment from the gods. He smiles bitterly at the memory of the last encounter with a mortal. As usual, Eren had desperately hoped, deep in his heart, that the man would stay and keep him company. The magics of Ogygia would make him immortal, after all. But of course, the mortal had left the island and Eren behind, back to his own, undoubtedly more pleasant, home.

Life in Ogygia meant endless picking of herbs from the small garden planted next to the cave Eren called a home, meant hours and days and weeks sitting on the giant loom tucked deep in the recesses of the cave. No sane mortal would choose a life here, a life with only Eren and the chirping of songbirds to keep a man company. He wishes for a way out of here, out of this paradise-like jail he cannot escape, but Eren knows that his punishment would be eternal. It was his fault for supporting the Titans in the war, after all.

There are no second chances for a mistake as big as the one he had made.

* * *

The gods must be laughing at me yet again, Eren thinks bitterly, as he stares down at the face of a man lying waterlogged and unconscious at his feet.

He sighs and kneels in the sand. He puts a pale hand atop the man's chest, and feels a heartbeat, slow but steady. He picks up the man with a strength that does not match his body, and turns around, walking back to the cave.

* * *

When the man wakes up, Eren only asks if he is okay, if he is hurt anywhere, and stays silent the rest of the time. He hands the man a fresh set of clothing-a clean white shirt and loose-fitting dark cotton pants. The man takes them without a word and changes while Eren's back is turned. After a few moments, he asks for his name, and he only turns around slightly and replies, " Eren."

The man is quiet, reserved. When Eren briefly asks how he came here, he says ,"Bad storm." and goes back to nursing his cup of broth. But that's better for him, Eren decides. The lesser words, the better. It means no exchange of feelings. Eren is determined to let the man go as soon as possible, and he will do it without breaking his own heart.

His plans are shot down to hell one starry night, when they kiss. It is a chaste one full of promises of happiness, of the future that Eren wishes for, but it feels as though something is pressing down on his chest. Promises have only been temporary, never fulfilled; he has spent eternity waiting for just one wish to be granted. He can't get the words out, he doesn't know how to express the feeling bubbling up inside of him.

After they lie down on the sand that is still warm from the day, the glowing coals of the dying fire casting a warm orange glow on their faces, Eren can finally pin it down, describe it in words. But he doesn't say it to Levi.

It is heartache.

* * *

They spend a few weeks together, a little less than two months. In the precious weeks they have, Eren shows Levi the magics of Ogygia, the creatures that are native to the island, and the secrets it has been holding that he's delved into for the last few millennia or so he's been here. They laugh, smile, and sometimes just sit there and stare into the other's face. Levi doesn't smile often, usually he wears a near-permanent scowl, but Eren thinks that he looks very nice when he does. The sharp edges of his cold blue-grey eyes soften and reveal the kind person Eren knows he really is. They hold hands, walking along the beach, feeling the warm waters of the sea licking at their heels, and wish that they could stay like this forever.

* * *

Levi has taken to staring out over the sea with a faraway look in his eyes, and only coming to when his name is called a few times. Eren watches him for a while but turns away, knowing what it means.

The faded symbols that were embroidered into the clothes Levi had worn when he arrivedーtwo wings crossed over each other, one white, the other blackー had told him everything he needed to know. The gods let him see what happens in the mortal world from time to time, and Eren has seen enough to know that there is a war, the foolish battles between man and man, and Levi has been fighting in it. Occasionally Levi tells him things about the outside world, how the war between countries called Maria and Sina had been going on for years. He speaks of his comrades with love, even the supposedly crazy woman known as Hanji he cares for very much. Eren stares into those grey eyes that he can't read, and wonders what it would be like if he could return to the mortal world along with Levi. He looks up at the stars that are bright that night, and tries to push down the feeling of resentment towards the gods.

For the first time in two hundred years he feels the sharp pain in his heart that refuses to go away. It gets stronger as the days wear on, like a needle poking into him for every day that Levi has been here. Eren tries his best to ignore it but the constant pain is tiring him. He wants it to go away, for the better or the worst.

* * *

One night, as they sit in front of the campfire they set up near the water, Levi tells him that he will be leaving the next morning. Eren does not cry, he only presses his lips to the other's silently. He can only think for the thousandth time that the gods must be so cruel to do this to him, just when he thought that he would not fall in love again. But for the night Eren stays with Levi, curled up by his side, to remember his touch, his scent, his warmth.

The next morning brings a blazing sun, a warm tropical wind, and a small sailboat floating ashore. Eren wordlessly hands Levi a small knapsack with the provisions he would need for the journey. Preportioned food, fresh water, an emergency sail, a few sets of clothing. As Levi steps onto the boat, Eren grabs his wrist and pulls something out of his pocket. It's a bracelet, handmade, braided from strips of the silvery hide of the wolf that lives on Ogygia and the tough grass that grows on the sandy beaches. Clay beads adorn the bracelet, but what catches Levi's eye is the image carved into one of the bigger beads.

It's an image of Ogygia, so complicated that even the minute details of the island that one would not usually detect with bare eyes are described. And on the beaches, Levi thinks he can see two tiny figures holding hands, walking on the shores of the magnificent island. He looks up at Eren and tells him it's beautiful. No other words can describe it but the one simple word. Eren wraps the bracelet around his wrist and ties it, his eyes never leaving Levi's face, as if to memorize it thoroughly. He tries to convey in his eyes what he cannot with words, pouring all of his love for Levi into his gaze. They kiss one last time, and Levi steps into the boat. The wind is great that day, swift but not strong, and just in the right direction. Eren wades into the water, and leans down to give the small boat a push when his wrist his caught. He looks up into strong grey eyes, and Levi whispers, " I'll come back. Someday, I'll come back, and take you with me."

Eren smiles at that, and lifts a hand to brush it against the side of his face."I'll be waiting." He then grabs the side of the boat and pushes it onto the tide.

When he straightens, the boat is already far away, carried out of Ogygia by the mysterious powers of the island. He raises a hand, and the small silhouette of a man on the boat waves back at him. When the horizon has swallowed the little boat and Eren can only see the aquamarine waters of the ocean, he realizes there are tears tracing a path down his face, and his heart breaks. He turns away, and heads back to his little cave home.

He would wait.

* * *

**wow so many line breaks.**

**This is..well I guess it's a prologue. Next chapter is updated when I find the time and urge to do so because I'm just a lazy butt :D**

**Reviews, favorites, and follows are very much appreciated.**

**+10/28 edit**

**FFN keeps cutting words in between some sentences, it's annoying me to no end.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I had a ton of fun writing this chapter, maybe except for the fact that I know next to nothing about ships.**

**I wish I was one of those authors who can write 9k+ words per chapter, but unfortunately I'm not.. never written more than 4k.**

* * *

He struggles to stay upright as the boat tilts dangerously to one side. Something is wrong, very wrong. The weather today is supposed to be warm and sunny, with just a light touch of swift summer wind. He falls to the ground and grunts in pain. He has never gotten seasick before but now he pities those who turn green as soon as they set foot on deck. Levi only barely manages to jump out of the way as a small table falls and slides towards him. Another rock of the ship, and a lamp is sailing towards him. Luckily, his reflexes are faster than a cheetah's, and he ducks down, thankful for the first time to his short stature. With the help of the bars set into the walls, he half-crawls to the door and makes his way to the hallway, and shakily climbs the ladder that leads to the next deck, the tremors of the ship threatening to shake him off with each rung.

A few more sets of ladders and he's at the top, running as best as he could through the rain that's pouring down like someone's opened the sky, tumbling a few times across the unstable floor. The door to the control room is open, and grabbing at the walls for support, he dashes in. Everyone is running around, desperately flipping at the controls to keep the boat steady or trying not to fall and hit their heads. A man named Daz is crying, grabbing at his cheeks while another sailor tries to calm him down. Levi looks around and grabs a young woman by the name of Petra by the arm, and when she turns around he can see the fear in her eyes. Her voice is steady though, and she says, " Captain, there's a bad typhoon heading our way. It just appeared out of nowhere, and our connection to land wasn't strong enough for us to get the news immediately."

Levi curses and then heads over to the radar, where a red dot is making its way toward a green dot that represents their ship at an alarming rate. " Are the engines intact?"

" Yes, sir."

"Then steer _Reconnaissance_ east of the storm at full steam. Now!"

Petra hastily salutes and rushes off unsteadily to relay the order to the others. Levi sighs and glances at the radar in worry. In the span of a few seconds, the typhoon is much closer now. It is not the first time he's been in a storm, but it is his first time in one as severe as this. Nothing can prepare a man for a freak storm that just randomly appears in the middle of the sea without screen set into the wall on the other side of the room shows a distant picture of the hurricane along with an estimation of its size and how fast it's moving. He watches as it rips through the water like a knife to butter, the ocean around it lifted up and swallowed by the wind. It's a mile long in diameter, too big to believe that it wasn't picked up by the ship's radar sooner. But he remembers where they are, at the border of the Bermuda Triangle. Personally, he thought that it was just a stupid myth, but now he's not very sure. Maybe he should have listened to his friend's crazy rambling about the cursed zone and whatnot. The red dot just creeps closer and closer by the second and for some reason they aren't heading east. He yells, " Oi! What happened to going east?"

A panicked voice answers,"the current is too strong, Captain! Our lady's not goin' anywhere like this!"

Levi curses again, and is torn between choices. Steam on and try their luck, or have the crew put on life jackets and try to salvage their life.

He makes a decision. To the crew, he yells, put on your life jackets now! Screw this, the ship's not going to live, good luck!"

He runs out, and goes below deck to warn any stragglers. He knocks wildly on every door, yelling at them to get out and save their asses. As he climbs back to the top deck to get his own jacket, the typhoon looms above them, a fiery burst of wind. Just as Levi reaches the top, the boat tilts and shakes violently, and he hears creaking like a door opening slowly.

"Look out!"

And then the huge mast is falling, its wood and metal structure crumpling like paper. The crew screams and runs to the other side of the deck, but one, too slow to react, only looks up at the looming shadow of death towering over him with a growing fear in his eyes.

"No!"  
"Daz!"

Levi averts his eyes as the beam falls with a mighty crash, the sound reverberating in the ship's body. He knows that it was too late for anyone to save the man, but he can't help feeling bad for Daz and maybe just a little bit of disgust at the blood that's pooling out. Then he shakes off that thought, feeling immediately guilty, and remembers what he came here for. He climbs out onto deck, carefully avoiding the fallen mast, and goes over to Petra, who is staring at the bloody mess with hands covering her mouth to block the sobs.

"Prepare the emergency boats."

She comes to, still in shock, and only manages a tiny," Yes, sir." before Levi heads starboard.

The storm is at their heels now, Levi can feel the strong wind threatening to peel the skin off of his face. He looks back, and sees that his crew is preparing their escape. He tells the nearest man to start loading the boats and try to row away, and the man nods, gives him a stiff salute, and hastens back to his friends, who start shouting at everyone else in the vicinity to start boarding the boats.

Casting a wan look at the typhoon, Levi turns his back on it and starts walking to the other side of the boat to tell them what they should do. His men are not hysterical, but with grim expressions on their faces, loosen and tighten the ropes. He nods in satisfaction, and wishes them luck in escaping the storm.

Just as the last boat is filling and Levi himself is about to set foot in it, he hears screams. When he looks up, a huge tidal wave is looking over them, and Levi can see the specks of sea foam on the edges and now he's really frozen because he knows that this wave, this anger of the sea, is unavoidable. He watches the wave cash down as if through a slow-motion camera, and suddenly he's swept off his feet and off the boat and _he can't see anything and now he's falling-_

Just in time, he grabs the rope dangling off the side of the Reconnaissance, his life literally hanging on a string. Petra and the others scream, "Captain!" from the last boat and they're reaching their hands out to him, but he knows that if they were to wait for him, they would miss the timing to disconnect their little lifeboat from the ship.

He shakes his head empathetically at them, and yells, "Go! I will be fine!"

He can see some of them weeping even as they start to saw at the ropes binding them to the ship. For the last time, he wishes them luck, and only hope that everyone would make it out.

Then, he lets go.

* * *

The water's swirling around him, pulling him ever deeper into the dark abyss of the sea, and he can't see anything or hear anything and worst of all he can't breathe, he's choking, he's dying, _suffocating-_

In a brief moment where his thoughts are as clear as crystal, Levi thinks that this method of death is pointless, he didn't even die in a war, now he's going to drown and rot away in a place that he's spent so many years in, where he considered a home, the waters-

Insubstantial hands seem to grasp at him, pulling at him, and he wonders if they are the hands of Death itself. His thoughts mix together, hazy, and his body goes numb-and in the moment of bliss, of the feeling of floating in a bed of clouds, he thinks that it might not be such a bad way to die after all.

* * *

Everything hurts. His back, his legs, his neck, his arms, and the splitting headache is threatening to really split his head in two. If this is heaven, Levi thinks, it's very overrated.

But all the pains in his body, even the migraine, goes away like a retreating tide as Levi relaxes. The sheets that he's lying on are as soft as fur, and is this an actual feather-stuffed pillow? The smell of bread and stew reaches him, and he coughs. It smells like a restaurant, but of course there's no restaurant in Heaven or Hell, so it must not be either of them. Rather relieved that he isn't dead, Levi opens his eyes.

For a second, he panics, because he really can't see anything, but as his eyes adjust, he realizes it's only the room that's dark. He blinks hard to get rid of that I-just-woke-up sort of milky film from his eyes, and when he can see somewhat clearly, he takes a good look around.

He's in a cave, dimly lit only by a few lanterns set into the walls and a fireplace that's roaring away. The smell is coming from a pot hanging over the fire, and he can see a brownish stew bubbling quietly inside. The ceiling catches his eye, and beautiful crystals that seem to be natural are sparkling in the light of the fire. Mesmerized, he gazes at them until he feels something warm pressig against his side.

Surprised, he turns, and finds a huge white wolf nuzzling him. He stiffens, sure that he'll be attacked, but the wolf only looks up at him with clear blue eyes, sniffs his face once, and then buries his nose in the blankets.

"He likes you."

Levi looks around for the source of the voice, then realizes they are right in front of him. It's a man-no, a boy, maybe about sixteen years of age. He has windblown, dark brown hair and a pale complexion, and his green eyes are coldly looking down at him.

"Where.." Levi says, surprised at the dryness of his throat.

The boy runs his hands through the wolf's soft white fur. Moments pass while he silently pets the wolf. "You are in Ogygia," he says at last. "The place where paradise and imprisonment coexist."

Ogygia... The name is familiar, but he can't put a finger to it.  
"You would know it as Calypso's island." the boy prompts, and Levi remembers. The girl stuck on an island, punished eternally for the wrong choice she made. "But I thought Calypso was a girl?"

The boy scoffs, and looks at him again with his emerald eyes. "People like that version better," he says. "Thinks it sounds much more, ah, romantic. But no. Calypso is a boy, and it isn't even his real name!" he sounds bitter, like he's sick of it all.

"Then what is your name?"

"Eren," the boy tells him. "But what good is it to tell you about me? In a few days you'll be leaving, going back to wherever your home is. What is the point?"

Levi briefly wonders if the Calypso in the stories had such a bad temper, until a pair of clothing is thrown at his face. "Change," Eren tells him."your clothes are filthy." He stalks out of the cave, and the wolf gets up from its place in Levi's bed and follows its master.

* * *

The clothes given to him are warm but airy, and the material is one he has never seen before-not that he's really well-versed in the sciences of fabrics, or whatever they call it. He quickly changes out of his old ones, because he hates anything with a speck of dirt on it, even more so when the speck is on himself. He spots the platter of food next to the bed, and wonders briefly if it was meant for him before digging into it ravenously anyway. The rich, hot stew is one you would not even find in a five-star restaurant, the bread is thick and sweet. Before long the plate is wiped clean to the last crumb, and Levi himself is surprised at the speed in which he partook.

One corner of the cave, he notes, is full of a giant machinery that looks to be a loom. He creeps closer, and the fabric set in the loom is shimmering like a rainbow. When he touches it though, it's as though it was woven with spiderwebs, silky and finer than any cloth known. Levi marvels at the work for only a few seconds before it dissolves in his hands like melting ice. He freezes, unsure, and panics, realizing the cloth is nowhere to be seen. Levi darts all around the room, searching in every nook and cranny of the cave. In his search he discovers many interesting items, such as a metal mouse that nearly bites his finger off, a tiny pot of dirt where a plant sprouts from the soil, blooms, wilts, and repeats the process over again, and a teapot that spouts steam from its metal ears while its face goes red. He eventually gives up, and sits back down on the bed with a heavy sigh.

His wandering eyes turn to the cave's mouth, and to the little opening of the curtain that is drawn across it. The heavens are bluer than the color itself, completely unlike the forboding gray of a sky that is about to unleash a freak storm on an innocent ship. Crystaline waters of the sea toss and sparkle in the sun, and drawn to it, Levi walks up to the mouth and slips past the heavy material of the curtain and strolls down to the beach.

The water is warm and the sand fine under his feet. This would be the perfect place for a resort, what with its paradiselike view, clear aquamarine beach, and the skies that are a bright, unclouded cyan.

After about a good half of a hour spent walking around in the shallow water, he walks out and spots a neat square of trees and plants right next to the cave, and thinks that it wasn't there just a few moments ago. He walks up the sandy hill barefoot, and pushes open a creaky gate that's almost overgrown with vines of bursting grapes.

As soon as he walks in, it's like another world opened up in the already otherworldly island. The scents of fruits that shouldn't be as strong as they are assault his senses, and the sweetness just falls a little bit short of making him dance in giddiness. Levi has very good self-control, thankfully, and only smiles like a child with candy as he walks through the garden that is laid out like grids of a graphing paper.

He leans down briefly to smell a golden flower with a tall, thin stem, and he feels a sharp peck on his cheek. A bird has landed on his shoulder, and pokes at him irritatedly again. When he moves aside, the bird seems to sigh and it gives him another, less sharper peck on the nose before poking his head into the flower. He smiles at that, and then laughs out loud when the bird is stuck in the flower, its stubby legs waving uselessly in the air. Levi carefully grabs the tiny bird with his forefinger and thumb and pulls it out. The bird titters in relief and hops to his shoulder where it rubs its soft feathery side against his cheek and flies off.

He walks deeper into the garden after that, watching the little metal dwarves tend to the plants. A peach falls into his hand while he stops under its tree, and when he bites into it, the flesh is so soft and golden and the juice so sweet that he doesn't even mind the stickiness of his hands afterwards.

As he pauses next to a tree whose trunk is soft and rubbery like sponge, he feels someone's eyes boring into the back of his head like a drill and turns around, the smile slowly slipping off his face.

Eren strides towards him, and when he's within hearing distance, yells, "What are you even doing here?"

"I..." He really doesn't have an excuse because, after all, he didn't really ask for permission. So he shuts his mouth and only looks at Eren's feet, which are barefoot and covered with dirt and grass but the white skin is shining through like the moon and it's actually really pretty-

"Don't slack off when someone's trying to talk to you!"

He looks up from his daydreaming and focuses on Eren. His hair is tossed this way and that from the breeze, and his face is glowing with the light halo of someone who's been outside. He'd look like an angel, Levi thinks, if not for the burning anger in his green eyes.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I know I'm intruding in your privacy right now and I'm not really the most nicest person in the world, but you don't have to be so angry."

"Of course I'm angry! I would be when the first person to wash up in the island in two thousand years has toㅡhas to look likeㅡ" he cuts his sentence off by biting his lips hard, and beads of crimson blood appear on his lips. His eyes harden, and the boy stalks toward him. Levi flattens himself against the tree behind him and closes his eyes, but the blow he anticipated never comes, and he opens his eyes to see Eren running past him with his head down.

Levi turns and watches him go, slightly confused and with an eyebrow raised. Eren's now just a speck and by golly, he runs fast, but Levi's mind is only fixated on the shimmering emerald green of his eyes, and realizes that those eyes had been crying, tears barely held back.

* * *

**Eren is OOC-ish because he's angry. :D**

**Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows, they motivated me very much to write this chapter. :)**

**Feedback is totally welcome.**

**+FFN stop cutting out words from my sentences... it's such a pain to fix them**


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